Ramgarh gets ready for Sonia Gandhi’s mega rally on April 4

Deepak Mahato,
Ranchi

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Updated: Apr 03, 2014 16:52 IST

Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will address an election rally in Ramgarh district on April 4 to boost her party’s campaign in Jharkhand. This has been planned after hundreds of locals in Gumla returned home disappointed after failing to hear Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s speech on Tuesday. A snag in Rahul’s chopper had derailed his Gumla plan.

Congress party workers are confident that Sonia’s visit to Ramgarh will definitely boost the party’s morale before the state goes to polls on April 10 in the first phase.

On April 1, Congress state president Sukhdeo Bhagat had announced that Sonia would address a massive election rally in Chatra which later got cancelled due to unavailability of ground.

During a meeting held on Tuesday, local Congress workers decided on Ramgarh as the venue for Sonia’s rally. It is around 60 km from the state capital and falls in Hazaribagh constituency which would go to polls in the second phase on April 17.

According to a senior Congress leader, who was part of the internal meeting, Ramgarh was chosen as the venue as it is lies near to several other key constituencies and supporters can arrive in large numbers at the Sido-Kanhu ground to hear their leader.

“This is Sonia’s first election rally in the state this election season. She will be here to support all the 14 candidates of the UPA alliance,” Bhagat added.

“Bhagat himself is monitoring the preparations. Congress state in-charge BK Hari Prasad will be in the state on Thursday to monitor the preparations,” Shailesh Sinha, the spokesperson of the state Congress unit, said.

In view of the rally and possible security threat to Gandhi, the Jharkhand Police are making adequate security arrangements.

“We are taking adequate steps to prevent any untoward incident during the rally,” RK Prasad, the Ramgarh superintendent of police (SP), said.